Replication of project activities
- At the request of and under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Tlhanyaku Grazing Association lead and coordinated application of livestock prophylaxis for livestock deworming in its area of jurisdiction: 2553 sheep, owned by 44 famers comprising 41 men and 3 women. This the government did to speed up the process and coverage of he vaccination campaign.
Planning non gef grant
- The project falls within the upper reaches of the catchment for Phase II of the transboundary Lesotho Highlands Water Project, that entails construction of the Polihali Dam and reservoir. The partnership already established by the Association and the Water project will continue for years to come as the the Association is key, among other stakeholders, for safeguarding the life of the envisaged Dam. Furthermore, the Ministry of Water Resources is rolling out an integrated catchment management (ICM) programme under European Union Support. The Programme has a community grants component. The SGP Secretariat participates, together with UNDP, in the Development Partners Forum on Environment, Natural Resources and Resilience Forum which meets quarterly, coordinated by GIZ under the auspices of the ICM Programme. It is the intention of the SGP Secretariat in Lesotho to support all grantees to take advantage of the community grants to upscale achieved results.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
? The project intents to reverse the norm by creating a bigger room for district governance personnel to participate at strategic points of discussing achievements and challenges.
? The approach to involve the Principal Chief to pronounce project milestones at the public gatherings will enhance participation at all levels.
Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous peoples? concept is not applicable to Lesotho. However, in the interest of local community participation, the following holds: Significant participation will initially be induced by having open discussion sessions about the project in its kick-starting stages. Discussing progress and challenges openly and sharing the achievement of targets. This will be complemented by study tour to a places where other communities are successfully achieving results under nearly similar circumstances.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
Socio-economic or alternative livelihoods activities spinning out of the project implementation are:
1. Ecological recovery of the rangeland brings with it biodiversity that opens up a plethora of opportunities of environmental services, goods and attractions.
2. Improvement of livestock implies access to livestock bi-products that have a potential to boost the local economy.
3. Re-introduction of livestock auctions will bring immediate reversal of access to cash.
Policy Influence
The National Strategic Development Plan II (NSDPII) identifies Environment and Climate Change Mainstreaming into Policy and Programming as a cross-cutting outcome. Two of the interventions listed under this outcome are, "enhance watershed management programmes" and "increase productive capacity of rangelands." The intervention like others implemented by grazing associations within the priority landscape is contributing towards rehabilitation and sustainable management of rangelands, with the overall objective of improving their productive capacity. Furthermore, the intervention is complementing the government relief programme on brush control and also towards attainment of the objectives of the national integrated catchment management project meant to safeguard the land and water resources of the country. The priority landscape falls within the Orange-Senqu River Basin and thus the intervention is in alignment with the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) of this regional transboundary water body whose sources are in the mountains of Lesotho.
Capacity - Building Component
The highlands community are only partly aware of their impact on the land.
? The interventions will introduce a management aspect that they have mostly taken for granted as a given.
? Monitoring on agreed intervals, is something that needs addressing through capacity building.
? Piloting of an initiative prior to a full-blown activity needs workshopping to provide capacity at the community level.
? Mid-term review and performance evaluation are aspects for which community participation needs capacity building as these are critical building blocks in any intervention.
Project sustainability
Tlhanyaku Grazing Association (TGA) like others in the upper reaches of the Orange-Senqu River, is considered as a key stakeholder in land and water resources management. With the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in full swing and enlisting all key stakeholders for safeguarding the catchment of the Polihali Dam, to be constructed under Phase II of the transboundary water project, achieved results will be sustained through partnerships established with the Department of Range Resources, Department of Water which, under its ICM project has approached the SGP for information on all projects implementing ICM related projects. The Department of water affairs ICM project presents an opportunity for CBOs and local government bodies to access grants for community ICM related projects and TGA will be assisted to take advantage of this opportunity and others.
Policy Impact
While land is communally owned, and increasingly utilized by subsistence farmers, the project, through multi-stakeholder participation, aims to improve individual responsibility for opening and certification to farmers? land-use practices.
Gender Focus
Women are ascribed to more domestic role and more docile type of tasks, while men undertake external and highly challenging tasks. There is already some transformation as women are involved in management in the association and are also involved in livestock activities such as classification of livestock bi-products and marketing. They are engaged in outdoor activities such as brush control and erosion control structures construction. The project will further open opportunities in strengthening their participation in dialogue in the conservation debate by publicly discussing project progress.
Notable Community Participation
Youth are involved in the project at three stages:
1. Part of the youth is the herders who are actually undertaking high-density grazing and mobile kraaling of livestock.
2. Part of the youth becomes involved on the environment day as well as the built-up to it.
3. Part of the youth becomes involved in public gatherings where project progress is discussed openly.
Project Results
- Mobile kraaling/high density grazing piloted with 250 sheep and 100 goats belonging to 4 farmers as part of brush control
- Also using matsema invasive shrubs were removed from 63.40ha of rangeland with palatable grasses regenerating on the rested land; 86 men and 33 women participated in Matsema in 20 day matsema for 100 days
- 112 people (82 men and 30 women) participated in construction of gabions and stone lines using matsema the result is that the velocity of water has been significantly reduced and soil has started piling up behind the gabions and stone limes and vegetation is being established on the deposited soil.
- With grass re-stablishing on the rangelands uphill and stone-lines and gabion construction, a further +/- 50ha for cropland below is protected from excessive runoff due to the mountain terrain.
- Grazing plan has been developed and it is being followed for sustainable management of the rangeland resources not only for the Association members but for the entire community benefit
- A total of 114 men and 81 women benefitted from the trainings (leadership and conflict management, financial management and budget tracking; rotational grazing/high density grazing, planning/reporting and record keeping; progress monitoring and adaptive management,; peer-to-peer exchange visits and educational tours) that have enabled them to manage conflicts and to better manage implementation of their project, the first which trusted them to enter into a contract, receive money and to use and account for it themselves.
- Demonstration of clean energy technologies for women empowerment ? 25 solar lamps were procure for sale to women who are association members, as a revolving scheme to enable purchase of more lamps to eventually cover all members and the community at large. The lamps are used for lighting and for charging cell phones.
- To ease/improve communication with members-SGP Secretariat-Grow the mentor and other key stakeholders including herders in the cattle posts. 3 cell phones were bought for 3 members of the executive committee.
- A total of 37 herders/herd boys participated in the Green-A-Cattle Post campaign meant to strengthen their involvement in range resources management. through this campaign, the herder received training on sustainable range resources management and received PPE to enable them to brave the harsh weather of the cattle post areas, high in the mountains and also protect them from contracting Covid-19
At the request and under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, applied livestock prophylaxis for livestock deworming: 2553 sheep, owned by 44 famers comprising 41 men and 3 women;
- Partnerships have been established with the ministries of Agriculture and Food Security, Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation as well as GROW ? the mentor in project implementation and management and local authorities who have set aside land for the project and who have allowed the Association to exercise control on the use of the project site.
- Overall 969 people (593 men; 312 women; 64 youth) have benefited in one way or the other through the project: trainings, community gatherings for awareness raising, training, brush control campaigns (Matsema), livestock prophylaxis, improved forage for livestock, cropland protected by improved vegetation cover uphill.
